There's an old adage, "Time waits for no man"...
In this morning's blog readings I came across the well known poem about the value of time. I was unfortunately unable to get it to post here, but here is the gist of it...
The poem lays out the value of time in different scenarios and people's lifes. For instance, If you want to know the value of a month - ask the mother of a premature child, etc. The poem states, again, If you want to know the value of a minute - ask a man who just missed his train, and, If you want to know the value of a second - ask someone who has been injured in an accident.
This poem culminates in the value of a millisecond to an Olympic athlete who has won a silver, rather than a gold medal.
This idea applies dramatically to the value of music in the commercial realm. A simple three minute single can change the life of an artist and his producer - forever. There are many people who had just one hit single 40 years ago who are still reaping the benefits from those three minutes they contributed to in their teens. Now, more than ever, this notion is true where the music business is concerned in a culture of celebrity worship. Just three minutes of music can change your life when you are the writer, artist, or producer. Yet, so often, we in the music business experience great difficulty managing our time with so much media to participate in and filter out. In the information age, our ability to discriminate the value of information is critical if we are to get anything of value accomplished. Yet, we are constantly called upon and expected to operate everything from a Twitter, to a Facebook, to various blogs and then some...
The power of time management in the music industry still lies mostly in the power of those three little minutes it takes for the listener to hear that hit single. So, the next time you are caught up in Twitter, Facebook, manuals, events and all matter of duties on the order of being a successful artist or producer, remember that the most important three minutes are those musical minutes and not - calling on a telephone, waiting on your Twitter, at a party, or on your Facebook.
Those three minutes are what its really all about !
Friday, January 15, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
The American Platinum Website ... Follow the Way
Hi, this is producer and artist Kim Molien. If you are looking for the American Platinum website, my production home - just click the link above at the head of this post.
(I haven't been able to blog much lately due to workload). Meanwhile, people are looking for the site under the brand 'American Platinum' rather than just my name. Just click the link and this site will take you where you want to go ...
Happy New Year !
(I haven't been able to blog much lately due to workload). Meanwhile, people are looking for the site under the brand 'American Platinum' rather than just my name. Just click the link and this site will take you where you want to go ...
Happy New Year !
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Twitter Just isn't the Same...
Twitter just isn't the same since a number of musical friends, associates and complete strangers began an exodus out. Initially, there was something to read, something to inspire people and then - Miley Cyrus and Courtney Love left. In the latter case, moving to New York and meeting up with the Bono crew led Love to mourn having been too revelatory on a platform like Twitter, which the platform itself tends to encourage for lack of much actually happening on it...
...and there is the truth about Twitter.
It is a limited platform, a bit too limited for more than inspiring quotes and jokes. Courtney turned it into a self revelatory journalistic wonderland is what she did, complete with strings of Tweets...rather than the occassional impersonal grunt of Buddhist self affirmation from Russell Simmons and Billy Corgan. God bless them both, but there has got to be more to Twitter than just reading through Leaves of Grass as if it was a stack of business cards and ads.
"I am the body electric"... I can't recall where Whitman wrote this, but this is what I mean by the downside of Twitter - you want to read more than brief inspiratory self knowledge and ads for acai juice diets.
You want to be the bystander witness to a war of words, a nervous breakdown, something that really shakes us awake and makes us rethink our life path at 2am. For Miley, it was more like...2pm, but for Courtney it was 2 am - Pacific Standard, then Eastern, once she split to New York, making it 5am.
Agitation is always present at the moment of a life affirming change, in the wee hours of humanity. Change, and real revelation, never come without suffering, and in the case of myself, while not to under emphasize the monumental nature of the estate fraud in the Cobain case. You might want to read about the estate fraud in the Cobain case on her Facebook, particularly if you have any real aspirations in music publishing and the music business. A late night cry for help surrounding what may be the most extensive case of probate estate fraud against a minor the State of California ever did ...little about.
Then again, the State of California has an awful reputation for the collection of child support, particularly during the 1990's - when its children were 17 times LESS likely to have their support collected than the children of New York State.
It's true - straight out of a Federally mandated study. In the case of Frances Bean Cobain, perhaps we aren't talking about a few hundred dollars for food and clothing here and there. But, we are talking about the inheritance of a child, an issue which has inspired admonitions of biblical proportion toward those who would "move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless"....
Frances lost her father to suicide in Washington State, and I have some cousins up in Kitsap who had the same exact experience just prior to Cobain's death if my date is right. They lost their father, Michael, my uncle. For those who would seek to move an ancient boundary stone...watch out.
Now to business, the cemetery in which my son John was buried at age 14, Grandview Memorial Park in Glendale, California is a similar...slightly different bag of tricks.
In this case, the cemetary was investigated by the State of California for doing just that and double burying children, such as my son in 2002 (and all manner of unseemly practices).
Now, the attorney, Paul Ayers, who claims to "represent the class action of persons" victimized in this debacle turns out to have been the attorney who represented the OWNERS of WOODLAWN Memorial Park in Compton !
Meanwhile, the co-owner of the cemetery was found dead on cemetary grounds during the investigation, in her home there.
I have a suspicion that insurance liability is at issue and (some) attorney's claiming to represent the "class" of wronged citizens happen to specialize in that area where it involves the other side of the cemetery table - or headstone.
Naturally, I am opting out: until my son is exhumed and moved to Forest Lawn Hollywood, into a proper family tomb at the cost of a good half to one million... where the Molien Family name is concerned... I shall never assign my right to discovery of the fact of his double burial, or that his body is missing. Never.
The Psalms admonish - Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, in almost those terms exactly. For those who have already done so, or for those who seek to play double agent to the mother's of the dead - like myself, it is best that this should happen at a time when the Internet is available to publicise the stories of person's so affected.
On our You Tube - we have up a video of various of the families affected by the Grandview Scandal cleaning up the cemetery themselves ...in the wake of continued neglect by its surviving owner Moshe Goldsman, and while they were under the impression that their interests were being shepherded before the court by an attorney claiming to represent class interests.
The decent care of the dead would be foremost on that list, and it did not happen in a way that honors those interests. For your viewing pleasure...a video of these families attending to the graves of their loved one's themselves- at Grandview Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
Edna Purviance, Chaplin's leading lady is buried there...by the way. This is Hollywood history by a long way...
Who's representing who ?
http://www.youtube.com/americanplatinum
...and there is the truth about Twitter.
It is a limited platform, a bit too limited for more than inspiring quotes and jokes. Courtney turned it into a self revelatory journalistic wonderland is what she did, complete with strings of Tweets...rather than the occassional impersonal grunt of Buddhist self affirmation from Russell Simmons and Billy Corgan. God bless them both, but there has got to be more to Twitter than just reading through Leaves of Grass as if it was a stack of business cards and ads.
"I am the body electric"... I can't recall where Whitman wrote this, but this is what I mean by the downside of Twitter - you want to read more than brief inspiratory self knowledge and ads for acai juice diets.
You want to be the bystander witness to a war of words, a nervous breakdown, something that really shakes us awake and makes us rethink our life path at 2am. For Miley, it was more like...2pm, but for Courtney it was 2 am - Pacific Standard, then Eastern, once she split to New York, making it 5am.
Agitation is always present at the moment of a life affirming change, in the wee hours of humanity. Change, and real revelation, never come without suffering, and in the case of myself, while not to under emphasize the monumental nature of the estate fraud in the Cobain case. You might want to read about the estate fraud in the Cobain case on her Facebook, particularly if you have any real aspirations in music publishing and the music business. A late night cry for help surrounding what may be the most extensive case of probate estate fraud against a minor the State of California ever did ...little about.
Then again, the State of California has an awful reputation for the collection of child support, particularly during the 1990's - when its children were 17 times LESS likely to have their support collected than the children of New York State.
It's true - straight out of a Federally mandated study. In the case of Frances Bean Cobain, perhaps we aren't talking about a few hundred dollars for food and clothing here and there. But, we are talking about the inheritance of a child, an issue which has inspired admonitions of biblical proportion toward those who would "move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless"....
Frances lost her father to suicide in Washington State, and I have some cousins up in Kitsap who had the same exact experience just prior to Cobain's death if my date is right. They lost their father, Michael, my uncle. For those who would seek to move an ancient boundary stone...watch out.
Now to business, the cemetery in which my son John was buried at age 14, Grandview Memorial Park in Glendale, California is a similar...slightly different bag of tricks.
In this case, the cemetary was investigated by the State of California for doing just that and double burying children, such as my son in 2002 (and all manner of unseemly practices).
Now, the attorney, Paul Ayers, who claims to "represent the class action of persons" victimized in this debacle turns out to have been the attorney who represented the OWNERS of WOODLAWN Memorial Park in Compton !
Meanwhile, the co-owner of the cemetery was found dead on cemetary grounds during the investigation, in her home there.
I have a suspicion that insurance liability is at issue and (some) attorney's claiming to represent the "class" of wronged citizens happen to specialize in that area where it involves the other side of the cemetery table - or headstone.
Naturally, I am opting out: until my son is exhumed and moved to Forest Lawn Hollywood, into a proper family tomb at the cost of a good half to one million... where the Molien Family name is concerned... I shall never assign my right to discovery of the fact of his double burial, or that his body is missing. Never.
The Psalms admonish - Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, in almost those terms exactly. For those who have already done so, or for those who seek to play double agent to the mother's of the dead - like myself, it is best that this should happen at a time when the Internet is available to publicise the stories of person's so affected.
On our You Tube - we have up a video of various of the families affected by the Grandview Scandal cleaning up the cemetery themselves ...in the wake of continued neglect by its surviving owner Moshe Goldsman, and while they were under the impression that their interests were being shepherded before the court by an attorney claiming to represent class interests.
The decent care of the dead would be foremost on that list, and it did not happen in a way that honors those interests. For your viewing pleasure...a video of these families attending to the graves of their loved one's themselves- at Grandview Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
Edna Purviance, Chaplin's leading lady is buried there...by the way. This is Hollywood history by a long way...
Who's representing who ?
http://www.youtube.com/americanplatinum
Friday, October 23, 2009
Captain - the Ship is Having Some Minor Difficulties...
Click the RED LETTERS above to reach the AMERICAN PLATINUM website.
I've been informed by our webmaster that this site was actually taken down by the number of hits via Twitter... Must have been something I posted that was free. Nevertheless, we are also having site map problems on GOOGLE.
So, this blog becomes a temporary redirect to the main site.
Thanks
Click the RED LETTERS above to reach the AMERICAN PLATINUM website.
I've been informed by our webmaster that this site was actually taken down by the number of hits via Twitter... Must have been something I posted that was free. Nevertheless, we are also having site map problems on GOOGLE.
So, this blog becomes a temporary redirect to the main site.
Thanks
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The Spooky Month of October and the Ancient Madness We Call "Music" ...
Well, it's the haunted month of October, again. In honor of the mystery that beguiles us this time of year, we redesigned one of our banners (above) to give our blog a bit of spooky...
In recent years, particularly since the death of my eldest son, I've been interested in the belief (of the Catholic Church and native religions the world over) ... that the 'dead' intervene in the affairs of the living. Behind the phenomenon of the saints, lies the Church's requirement that in order to be considered for 'sainthood' a deceased person must produce 'miracles' in response to appeals from the living. The deceased must, thereby, be solicited by the requests of the living before these miracles can occur and be attributed to a specific person.
This is a round about way of saying that the Church both encourages and acknowledges "communication with the dead", particularly with those who aren't yet 'saints'.
Meanwhile, the Church is peculiar in its tendency not to be straightforward on the matter of communication with the dead. And, the Evangelical assertion that, though the dead are 'alive in Christ', they neither see, hear, nor communicate...has created confusion on the matter for average Christians.
This is a music oriented blog. Nevertheless, I'd like to discuss the relationship between music ... and miracles, and the phenomenon of music as an ancient vehicle for our experiences in a wholistic respect. Today, it is very easy to become immersed in the technical aspects of music production. I've observed this tendency of musicians to become preoccupied with software and gear. This produces an atmosphere where music suffers from what I like to call..."brain drain". From reading 400 hundred page software manuals to fiddling endlessly with software, the process of making music has suffered in recent years despite enormous technological advances.
These days producers tend to know more about software than they do electronic components, and even less about techniques of arranging. Rather than 'producers', it may be more apt to call some of these recordists. They know how to 'record' using computer hardware, but they know surprisingly little about the disciplines of melodic structure and harmony.
I am convinced that the overwrought necessity of having to study so many manuals and to endlessly tinker with computer issues in the face of a widespread lack of musical studies... is draining and creates music that considerably lacks those aspects of artisanship that are in evidence in developed talent.
The famine of good writing, of melodic and harmonic effort - is universally recognized by the consumer now, too. Consumers complain about this lack of quality music, complaints that can be read across the internet, from all over the world. The emphasis on technology has forced aspiring musicians to overfocus their studies on software engineering, but the same has NOT been true of aspects of music that require technical exploration.
The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) has also had a hand in creating an atmosphere where new equiptment is the constant focus. This over emphasis on consumerism is evident in the psychological message manufacturers sell musicians: that buying music gear will result in the consumer's ability to actually make better music. No where is this more true than among software design companies. Software is nothing but 'code' and requires little tangible manufacture. The production of software is very cheap (it need only be mass copied and packaged). Thus, the software industry is rife with poor product and the unspoken belief that the 'next update' will be "better" than the previous version of a program. The addiction to software is a carefully engineered marketing phenomenon meant to produce repeat customers.
Equiptment marketing is about sales figures and the heaven sent phenomenon of "pseudo-hardware" (software plug ins and various forms of virtual music equiptment which are software based) has been of great interest to music manufacturers. All manner of promises are made to the consumer about this software - to the extent of consumer fraud in many cases; the presence of "bugs" can render it almost unusable. Yet, few companies ever 'recall' their software as is the case in hardware based musical products.
In this atmosphere, music itself has taken a back seat to the tools used to create it. What I call the "brain drain" is the culmination of all of these attitudes: when equiptment monopolizes the process of creating music. One is constantly reading manuals for new software: there is hardly time to actually study music when these tools challenge us with ever evolving interfaces.
As for the role of music in expressing the spiritual: music is a language, and all that musical equiptment is for speaking that language. Certainly, equalizers can aid us in defining a 'mix', and plug ins can assist us in producing timbres that speak to the listener, but these are not a replacement for developing one's command of musical language. It is through practice that we learn to speak. The language of music is not different in this regard, though some people have natural imitative talent. Mastering this is more critical to the career of an artist than the hoarding of equiptment and competitive attitudes acquired by the consumer as a result of incessant exposure to NAMM marketing.
No one has yet fully explained the phenomenon of music. Like spirituality, it dates back to the foundation of human civilization. Like the soul it speaks to, music is an ephemeral expression of what it means to be fully human. Therein lies the spiritual mystery of "music": it is an instinctual expression. It must be 'felt' to be truly experienced, rather than just listened to.
Music is also a craft - decidedly more worth studying than any software. Software can randomly generate music, but the "music" so easily created by pasting looped phrases into a timeline is usually as crude (among musicians) as the sound of a vacuum is compared to the Shakespearean monologue.
The ongoing famine of quality music is proportional to the musical talent among writers and particularly - writer producers. It is common for arrangements to extend to 150 tracks (whether for Lady GaGa or My Chemical Romance), but these expansive arrangements often offer little in the way of harmonic and melodic development between tracks and movements.
I'll be addressing these subjects in weeks to come. Until then, go make some great music...
In recent years, particularly since the death of my eldest son, I've been interested in the belief (of the Catholic Church and native religions the world over) ... that the 'dead' intervene in the affairs of the living. Behind the phenomenon of the saints, lies the Church's requirement that in order to be considered for 'sainthood' a deceased person must produce 'miracles' in response to appeals from the living. The deceased must, thereby, be solicited by the requests of the living before these miracles can occur and be attributed to a specific person.
This is a round about way of saying that the Church both encourages and acknowledges "communication with the dead", particularly with those who aren't yet 'saints'.
Meanwhile, the Church is peculiar in its tendency not to be straightforward on the matter of communication with the dead. And, the Evangelical assertion that, though the dead are 'alive in Christ', they neither see, hear, nor communicate...has created confusion on the matter for average Christians.
This is a music oriented blog. Nevertheless, I'd like to discuss the relationship between music ... and miracles, and the phenomenon of music as an ancient vehicle for our experiences in a wholistic respect. Today, it is very easy to become immersed in the technical aspects of music production. I've observed this tendency of musicians to become preoccupied with software and gear. This produces an atmosphere where music suffers from what I like to call..."brain drain". From reading 400 hundred page software manuals to fiddling endlessly with software, the process of making music has suffered in recent years despite enormous technological advances.
These days producers tend to know more about software than they do electronic components, and even less about techniques of arranging. Rather than 'producers', it may be more apt to call some of these recordists. They know how to 'record' using computer hardware, but they know surprisingly little about the disciplines of melodic structure and harmony.
I am convinced that the overwrought necessity of having to study so many manuals and to endlessly tinker with computer issues in the face of a widespread lack of musical studies... is draining and creates music that considerably lacks those aspects of artisanship that are in evidence in developed talent.
The famine of good writing, of melodic and harmonic effort - is universally recognized by the consumer now, too. Consumers complain about this lack of quality music, complaints that can be read across the internet, from all over the world. The emphasis on technology has forced aspiring musicians to overfocus their studies on software engineering, but the same has NOT been true of aspects of music that require technical exploration.
The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) has also had a hand in creating an atmosphere where new equiptment is the constant focus. This over emphasis on consumerism is evident in the psychological message manufacturers sell musicians: that buying music gear will result in the consumer's ability to actually make better music. No where is this more true than among software design companies. Software is nothing but 'code' and requires little tangible manufacture. The production of software is very cheap (it need only be mass copied and packaged). Thus, the software industry is rife with poor product and the unspoken belief that the 'next update' will be "better" than the previous version of a program. The addiction to software is a carefully engineered marketing phenomenon meant to produce repeat customers.
Equiptment marketing is about sales figures and the heaven sent phenomenon of "pseudo-hardware" (software plug ins and various forms of virtual music equiptment which are software based) has been of great interest to music manufacturers. All manner of promises are made to the consumer about this software - to the extent of consumer fraud in many cases; the presence of "bugs" can render it almost unusable. Yet, few companies ever 'recall' their software as is the case in hardware based musical products.
In this atmosphere, music itself has taken a back seat to the tools used to create it. What I call the "brain drain" is the culmination of all of these attitudes: when equiptment monopolizes the process of creating music. One is constantly reading manuals for new software: there is hardly time to actually study music when these tools challenge us with ever evolving interfaces.
As for the role of music in expressing the spiritual: music is a language, and all that musical equiptment is for speaking that language. Certainly, equalizers can aid us in defining a 'mix', and plug ins can assist us in producing timbres that speak to the listener, but these are not a replacement for developing one's command of musical language. It is through practice that we learn to speak. The language of music is not different in this regard, though some people have natural imitative talent. Mastering this is more critical to the career of an artist than the hoarding of equiptment and competitive attitudes acquired by the consumer as a result of incessant exposure to NAMM marketing.
No one has yet fully explained the phenomenon of music. Like spirituality, it dates back to the foundation of human civilization. Like the soul it speaks to, music is an ephemeral expression of what it means to be fully human. Therein lies the spiritual mystery of "music": it is an instinctual expression. It must be 'felt' to be truly experienced, rather than just listened to.
Music is also a craft - decidedly more worth studying than any software. Software can randomly generate music, but the "music" so easily created by pasting looped phrases into a timeline is usually as crude (among musicians) as the sound of a vacuum is compared to the Shakespearean monologue.
The ongoing famine of quality music is proportional to the musical talent among writers and particularly - writer producers. It is common for arrangements to extend to 150 tracks (whether for Lady GaGa or My Chemical Romance), but these expansive arrangements often offer little in the way of harmonic and melodic development between tracks and movements.
I'll be addressing these subjects in weeks to come. Until then, go make some great music...
Sunday, October 11, 2009
All Things Twitter...
Well, Courtney Love has left Twitter after coming to the realization that Twitter seems to be a kind of addicting platform for self revelation, and a place to easily embarrass one's self, if not incidentally, than out of boredom when attempting to express one's self in less than a certain number of characters.
The problem of Twitter is that its really a way to 'text' an endless number of strangers with what "you are doing" at anytime of the day or night, and this feeds our current obsession with 'reality television' and the happenings of other's lives, a sort of voyeuristic trespassing into the lives of others...with permission.
This is bound to lead to moments of personal embarrasment. It's the very nature of Twitter to be personal and to elicit the artifacts of embarrasment possible when one is bored in the middle of the night, or stressed, or being robbed blind by attorneys...
So, to CL - good for you...to each his own: nothing is eternal, except change.
The problem of Twitter is that its really a way to 'text' an endless number of strangers with what "you are doing" at anytime of the day or night, and this feeds our current obsession with 'reality television' and the happenings of other's lives, a sort of voyeuristic trespassing into the lives of others...with permission.
This is bound to lead to moments of personal embarrasment. It's the very nature of Twitter to be personal and to elicit the artifacts of embarrasment possible when one is bored in the middle of the night, or stressed, or being robbed blind by attorneys...
So, to CL - good for you...to each his own: nothing is eternal, except change.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Been Off a While...
Hi Twitter followers and others... I was on vacation and just returned, back with news. We are prepping for Disney submission and lotsa work ahead. I'll be posting more plug in links.
I noted that Sound on Sound runs an article called Mix Rescue where the author recommends the Stillwell Plugs, Reaper, and many of the free plugs coming out from developers with start ups. Check out Mix Rescue at Sound on Sound's online site.
http://www.soundonsound.com
I noted that Sound on Sound runs an article called Mix Rescue where the author recommends the Stillwell Plugs, Reaper, and many of the free plugs coming out from developers with start ups. Check out Mix Rescue at Sound on Sound's online site.
http://www.soundonsound.com
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